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How music works

The Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame inductee and co-founder of Talking Heads presents a celebration of music that offers insight into the roles of time, place and recording technology, discussing how evolutionary patterns of adaptations and responses to cultural and physical contexts have influenced music expression throughout history and culminated in the 20th century's transformative practices.

Creation in reverse --
My life in performance --
Technology shapes music : analog --
Technology shapes music : digital --
In the recording studio --
Collaborations --
Business and finances --
How to make a scene --
Amateurs! --
Harmonia Mundi.

Responsibility:

David Byrne.

Abstract:

The Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame inductee and co-founder of Talking Heads presents a celebration of music that offers insight into the roles of time, place and recording technology, discussing how evolutionary patterns of adaptations and responses to cultural and physical contexts have influenced music expression throughout history and culminated in the 20th century's transformative practices.

Reviews

Editorial reviews

Publisher Synopsis

"From the former Talking Heads frontman, a supremely intelligent, superbly written dissection of music as an art form and way of life...Byrne touches on all kinds of music from all ages and every part of the world... Highly recommendedanyone at all interested in music will learn a lot from this book.""Kirkus" (Starred Review) "In this fascinating meditation, Talking Heads frontman Byrne ("Bicycle Diaries") explores how social and practical context, more than individual authorship, shaped music making in history and his own career... his chapters on Heads recording sessions are some of the most insightful accounts of musical creativity yet penned. The result is a surprising challenge to the romantic cliche of musical genius... Byrne s erudite and entertaining prose reveals him to be a true musical intellectual, with serious and revealing things to say about his art.""Publishers Weekly" (Starred Review) David Byrne is a brilliantly original, eccentric rock star, and he has written a book to match his protean talents ... What s best about [it] is that Byrne concentrates on his own experience, from a teenage geek splicing layers of guitar feedback on his father s tape recorder (he had a mild self-diagnosed case of Asperger s syndrome, he writes) to arty if neo-primitive rock star with the early Talking Heads at CBGB to increasingly sophisticated, globe-wandering art-rocker, happily collaborating with all manner of world musicians and pop-technological innovators. John Rockwell, "The New York Times Book Review" "Endlessly fascinating, insightful, and intelligent."June Sawyers, "Booklist" (Starred Review) "[How Music Works is] the book [Byrne] was born to write. I could make a good case for calling this "How Art Works" or even "How Everything Works.""Cory Doctorow, "Boing Boing" "Byrne explores a whole symphony of argument in this extraordinary book with the precise, technical enthusiasm you'd expect from the painfully bright art school-educated son born in Scotland, raised in the States of an electrical engineer, occasionally mopping his fevered brow in the crestfallen manner of a 19th-century poet... It's fascinating."Mark Ellen, "The Guardian" "'How Music Works, ' is as engaging as it is eclectic: a buoyant hybrid of social history, anthropological survey, autobiography, personal philosophy, and business manual, sometimes on the same page... We re changed. Even for the most ardent explorers (and Byrne is one) this is some seriously unknowable territory.""The Boston Globe" By all accounts, Byrne s style and energy are as apparent on the page as on the stage. Kathryn Schulz, "New York Magazine" [Byrne] wraps his keen cultural insights in a sheath of self-aware subjectivity and unapologetic personal conviction, with just the right amount of conversational candor Maria Popova, "Brain Pickings" ""How Music Works" is a good read for anyone interested in art and technology and how creativity has been transformed in the digital age."Bryant Frazer, "Studio Daily" Truly dazzling, covering a staggering scope of topics ... Almost every page [is] a song. Jason Heller, "The Onion A.V. Club" In the course of "How Music Works," Byrne integrates his discussion of all the issues of recording and live performance into a personal account of his own career. Although this book stops short of turning into a memoir or autobiography, fans seeking a behind-the-scenes account of Byrne's life and times won't be disappointed ... An essential guide to performance and recording, honest and up-to-date, and filled with both practical advice and insightful commentary. Ted Gioia, "The San Francisco Chronicle" Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Jay Z, even Daniel Lanois have all given us books in recent years. And they ve all been interesting and worth reading. But none of them is as good as David Byrne s book ... He weaves his account of the evolution of music from animals to humans and the history of changes in the way music studios work into the most accessible and unpretentious narrative of such a story that I have yet come across. David Rothenberg, "The Globe and Mail" A decidedly generous book welcoming, informal, digressive, full of ideas and intelligence and one has the pleasant sense that Byrne is speaking directly to the reader, sharing a few confidences he has picked up over the years. Tim Page, "The Washington Post" An accomplished celebration of an ever-evolving art form that can alter how we look at ourselves and the world... a meticulously researched and hugely absorbing history of music Fiona Sturges, "The Independent" An entertaining and erudite book, from a figure who has spent his career proving that those two adjectives can happily coexist ... The chapter on the economics of music should be required reading for all 16-year-olds tinkering with their GarageBand software and dreaming of dollar signs, while the section on How to Make A Scene is nothing less than a manual for urban regeneration through pop culture ... A serious, straightforward account of an art form that also manages to be inspiring. You could do a lot worse than use it as a thinking-outside-the-box management manual or a college primer. Art and Society 101: Stop Making Sense. Peter Aspden, "Financial Times" David Byrne deserves great praise for How Music Works. It is as accessible as pop yet able to posit deep and startlingly original thoughts and discoveries in almost every paragraph ... This book will make you hear music in a different way.Oliver Keens, "The Telegraph" Smart and impeccably researched ... A text to read and pick through time and again ... all this is what you d expect, and hope for, from the foremost heady apologist of pop music. It s a must-read for anyone who has ever felt moved by a catchy tune and wanted more. James Ramsay, "BlackBook" "Read more...